Iran ready to swap all prisoners with US

Tehran, Sep 22 (IANS) Iran is ready for a complete prisoner swap with the US, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said.

Zarif made the remarks in a virtual address to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York on Monday, reports Xinhua news agency.

In December 2019, the US and Iran completed a prisoner swap, freeing one scholar from each country.

Xiyue Wang, a US scholar who had been in Iranian custody since August 2016, and Iranian scholar Massoud Soleimani held by the US for more than one year, were released.

Wang was sentenced in 2017 to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of being "an infiltrating American agent".

Soleimani was reportedly arrested in Chicago last year and was charged with violating US trade sanctions against Iran.

Iran and the US have had an increasingly strained relationship in recent years and share no diplomatic links.